Jaguars vs Giants: Postgame Analysis
JT: Turning a negative into a positive
Unfortunately due to scheduling circumstances we have been unable to put out the recap of the Jaguars/ Giants game until now. As I sit here and type this beautifully written prose, it’s 3:55am and I can not sleep. My loss is your gain. My mind is racing with thoughts surrounding Jacksonville’s James Robinson trade to the NY Jets and who, if anyone, might be next. Does noone stay with a team long term anymore, or is this the life of a small market team? Are the Jaguars the Florida Marlins who blow up their good teams, except that the Jaguars aren’t waiting until they win championships, or until they are “good?” I’m telling you, these are the things of which nightmares are made. These are also the things that will be discussed in the next article which will be covering the Robinson trade. For now we will be content with reading about the loss to the NY Giants, though from a unique perspective. We are going to focus on the positives of this loss. The good that can be seen through the thicket of crap that has undoubtedly shrouded our once great Jacksonville team (by once great I mean weeks two and three). This column is brought forth for the consumption of those who wish to look on the bright side. WIthout further adieu, JaguarsTalk presents to you the puppy dogs and ice cream version of the week seven game against the New York Football Giants.
Yes, Jacksonville technically lost, but did they really? Yes, they really lost. Saquon Barkley, the Giants fantastic running back who found the fountain of youth during the offseason and returned to his rookie form, ran for 130 yards against Jacksonville. If you read the JaguarsTalk pre-game write-up you would know that in order to win this game JAX would have to hold Barkley to under 100 yards. 130 > under 100. But is it? Yes, it is. However Jacksonville did hold Saquon to an extremely impressive 90 yards through three and a half quarters, a difficult feat, to be sure. The problem arose when on the final game winning Giants drive, Barkley rattled off 40 additional yards. As an avid reader of the website I am sure you also recall that JaguarsTalk stated in the pre-game column that Jacksonville needed to shadow Daniel Jones, as he has a penchant for running. We even went so far as to suggest linebacker Devin Lloyd be the defensive spy. Unfortunately, the Jaguars coaching staff does not read JaguarsTalk. Actually, since we are being positive today, we choose to believe they read the site and then ignore the suggestions. Though I am not sure which is more positive. Either way Jones ran wild on the Jags to the tune of 107 yards, the most a Giants QB has run for since most of you readers were born. This showing by Jones, sparked much debate by the Monday morning QBs on the radio. They spoke in depth about whether or not a “spy” on Jones was necessary or would have helped. The positive feature about this negative statistic is that JaguarsTalk had it right from the outset. We have a habit of that. Both being right and modesty are two of our more favorable traits.
In this loss to the Giants the Jaguars also decided to regress to their cheating ways of game one against Washington, by committing 13 penalties for 80+ yards. Nothing helps a team win more games than to subtract the hard earned yardage needed to actually win more games. Keep the faith, the positivity is coming. This part will be more of a build up to the positive. A crescendo, if you will. Included in the Jaguars penalties was yet another roughing the passer call that prolonged an otherwise stalled drive by the Giants. Not only did it allow the Giants drive to continue but it negated a very necessary interception by the Jaguars D that may have turned the tide of the game. This week, however, it was not number one draft pick Travon Walker, but instead veteran Foye Oluokun who decided to head butt Daniel Jones, AFTER, he released the ball for the Jaguars INT. A turnover that was not to be. In that last sentence was hidden the mini positive that maybe Travon has learned his lesson about roughing the passer. Oh, and Walker did record his first sack since week one. Boom! Positivity.
On another positive note, the Jaguars ran the ball very very well, averaging over eight yards per carry…in the first half. In the second, they forgot how to run the ball, but on the brightside Trevor Lawrence was playing well, completing passes, and not turning the ball over. This was illustrated, in part, by Christian Kirk’s quietly impressive seven catches for 96 yards. The second half decision to all but abandon the run is nothing new for Jacksonville and thus it is a positive that they ran it so well in the first half. It is also of note that Trevor is developing nicely into an efficient QB. There were many times when the Jaguars offense was pinned down in third and long or second and long situations (really long, like 15 yards+) and T-Law got them the first down with good pocket presence and a rocket arm. Not many are talking about Lawrence’s great throws and instead are focusing on the fact that he missed another wide open receiver in the endzone on the play before Travis Etienne fumbled the ball to NY while going in for a touchdown. But I digress.
Head Coach Doug Pederson has officially switched to Travis Etienne as his number one running back, which was not only evident by the fact that James Robinson had zero touches in this game but then later by the fact that James was shipped off to New York to become a Jet and have a 5-2 record instead of 2-5. That is a positive for Robinson and for Jacksonville, as Etienne is the more explosive runner. One thing that remains in question, however, is Jacksonville’s ability to convert on short yardage plays. They are significantly better at converting on 3rd or 4th and 2 yards or more than they are with only one yard to gain. The Jaguars displayed this futility by going for it on 3rd and 4th and one resulting in a turnover on downs instead of just kicking the 37 yard field to go up by 7 points on the Giants, possibly changing the final outcome. The positive takeaway from this decision is that the backlash was so loud that I think maybe Doug Pederson reconsiders not taking the points next time. He may consider that all of Jacksonville’s losses are one score games and those three points are thus extremely valuable to the team. Add the fact that this Jaguars team has only been roughly 30% successful on fourth down attempts this season and that might also be cause to pause the next 4th down attempt, at least when points are an option.
No doubt there were many negative aspects to the Jaguars play against the Giants. And no doubt those negative aspects all contributed to the Jaguars fourth straight loss. But now the good news. The positive climax you’ve been awaiting. Jacksonville almost won in the end. They were stopped on the one yard line as time expired. A game winning drive, aided by NY penalties (of which a few were questionable but if we are being fair the Jags suffered the brunt of the questionable calls the majority of this game), was brilliantly orchestrated by Trevor Lawrence. It culminated in a bullet, on a rope, to Christian Kirk that left the Jaguars about an inch from paydirt. The Jags offense, for the second week in a row, has shown they are capable of winning, without of course actually winning (impressive in it’s own right). Trevor Lawrence was efficient with his offensive play and impressive with his arm. He isn’t making any mistakes that are not correctable and thus he will improve in those areas over the course of this season. The defense hasn’t exactly played up to par these past two games, like they did in the first several. Mike Caldwell has some readiness questions to answer. The Jaguars have been in every single game, up until the last drive. If you know as a team that you are not playing your best and yet you still have a very good chance to win every game you play, then you know as a team that you are good. The Jags record does not tell the entire story, but the players do. When asked after the game, Jaguars players were positive and confident, telling reporters to have patience because they are about to “pop.” Let’s hope that happens this week against the Denver Broncos in London.
Let us know if the “pop” will be in a good way or if it means the Jacksonville bubble will be burst, in the comment section below.